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Edie Britt
'''Edie Williams' (née Britt, previously McLain and Rothwell) was perhaps the most reviled woman on Wisteria Lane, yet she never really understood why. Strong-willed and self-employed, when Edie saw something she wanted, she got after it. And nothing would stand in her way. Edie was not your typical housewife, as she'd rather go out clubbing and hooking up with indiscriminate men than to stay at home and do the chores. Well known for her sexual appetite, Edie soon acquired the status of "neighborhood slut." But after her fellow housewives raised concern about her behavior, Edie decided to leave the Lane for good. She returned 5 years later, apparently a reformed woman...with a new husband in tow, who brought with him a dark past and a plan for revenge. Edie died in a shocking accident involving an electrical post, after discovering her husband's evil plan. Edie perished just as she lived - as the 'complete and utter center of attention'. Biography 'Early Life' Edie was brought up on the "wrong side of the tracks"; her father abandoned her at a young age for his mistress and her 10 year old daughter; she was raised in a caravan park; and was mistreated by her alcoholic mother. In her childhood, Edie was a skilled guitar player, along with the rest of her family who were all well-trained musicians. After years of abuse and neglect, Edie left home and set up her own real estate company. She then married her first husband, Dr. Charles McLain and quickly became pregnant with her first and only child, Travers. 'Season 1' When new neighbor, Mike Delfino, a plumber, moves onto Wisteria Lane, Edie begins her conquest to get him in bed with her. She visits his house with a casserole, hoping to get a date, but she's interrupted by Susan Mayer, who is also interested in Mike. After he tells the girls he is busy, Edie asks Mike to "look at her pipes". Later, Edie makes another attempt at winning Mike by inviting him over to her house for dinner. When Susan finds this out, she sabotages their date by calling Mike over to fix a plumbing emergency. The next day, Susan finds out Edie has a man over at her house. Jealous, She tries to sabotage their night again by interrupting them, asking for sugar. However, when there's no answer, she sneaks inside and accidentally sets the house on fire when hearing Edie having sex. Susan is then relieved to find out that the man was not Mike. ("Pilot") After having her house burnt down, Edie, with help from her friend Martha Huber, search through the remains for any belongings that still have any worth. She asks Martha if she can stay with her until her insurance comes, and Martha allows her too. Martha then finds a measuring cup, thinking it's worth something, but Edie tells her it isn't hers. This makes Martha become immediately suspicious, knowing someone burnt the house down, but Edie doesn't seem to care. When Mike and Susan prepare for a dinner together, Edie ruins it by getting Mike to sympathize with her because of her house burning down, and she's invited to the dinner. During the dinner, Edie gets along great with Mike's dog, Bongo. This angers Susan, so she tries to get along with Bongo too, to impress Mike, but things end badly when he swallows her earring. ("Ah, But Underneath") One day, Susan notices Edie trying to impress Mike while she washes her car in a swimsuit, and she's mortified to see it working. She interrupts Edie's plans by giving Mike junk mail horded by Julie. Martha Huber later discovers that Susan burnt down Edie's house, so she blackmails her. She tells Susan to let Edie get with Mike, as she is annoying to live with, or she'll tell the police. Susan is forced to agree, and when Mike offers to go on a date with Susan, she turns him down, insisting he go with Edie instead. ("Who's That Woman?") When Susan goes to spy on Mike, who is with another woman, Kendra Taylor, Edie tags along. Later, Mr. Shaw approaches Edie to kill her, as Paul Young believed she blackmailed his wife, Mary Alice, who committed suicide. ("Anything You Can Do") After discovering that forty dollars has been stolen from her purse, Edie accuses Martha. This then leads to them both arguing. Martha insists she didn't take the money, but Edie explains she overheard her on the phone to the bank, and she knows she is having financial issues. Angry at Edie spying on her, Martha kicks her out of the house. Later, Mr. Shaw approaches Edie, ready to kill her. He soon discovers some evidence that proves Edie didn't blackmail Mary Alice. However, this sadly incriminates Martha. ("Guilty") When Gabrielle Solis decides to run a fashion show showcasing the women of Wisteria Lane for charity, Edie helps out by modelling some of the dresses. However, when Martha fails to show up for a dress fitting, she starts to become worried for her. ("Suspicious Minds") Still looking for Martha, Edie thinks about breaking into her house. She asks Lynette Scavo if she has a key to Martha's house, saying that she left her laptop there with personal information she doesn't want anyone to see. After Lynette is unable to help, Edie gets the police to look for Martha and enter the house. ("Come Back to Me") After reminiscing about Martha, Edie meets Martha's sister, Felicia, who came to Wisteria Lane to find out what happened to her. Later, Edie helps the neighborhood search for Martha in the woods, but they're unsuccessful. She later attends Julie's as Karl Mayer, Susan's ex-husband's date; and Susan becomes furious when she learns they made out during her marriage to him. ("Move On") After Martha's body is discovered in the woods and recovered by police, Edie plans a funeral for her, but is saddened to realize only she and Susan are the mourners. They both go to spread Martha's ashes at a lake that meant a lot to her. During the car journey, they talk about their pasts and Edie reveals she was an outcast who smoked. Moments before releasing the ashes, Susan reveals to Edie that she burned her house down. In a rage, Edie throws the ashes all over Susan. ("Every Day a Little Death") Susan becomes depressed after she learning of Mike's past, and Edie, encouraged by Lynette to tries to be closer with her and pays her a visit to try and cheer her up. The two of them go to a bar, and Susan explains how she thinks Paul is Martha's real murderer. Fueled by a revelation Edie makes about how Paul acted weird around Felicia, the two women break into his house, searching for incriminating clues. They find and watch part of a videotape labeled 'Angela's Award Party', that features Mary Alice... receiving an award. Paul comes home, so Edie distracts him while Susan sneaks out. ("The Ladies Who Lunch") Susan is asked out on a date by Bill Cunningham, one of the men building Edie's new home and who had dated her briefly. She asks Edie's permission to go out with him, but she isn't given it. However, she goes out with him anyway. Edie tracks them down and scolds Susan for it. ("There Won't Be Trumpets") Later, Paul approaches Edie in the hopes of learning why she was in his house some time earlier, and Edie explains it was all Susan's fault, as she has this theory that he's evil and that he murdered Martha. Lynette later asks for some advice on how to deal with Annabel Foster, Tom's work colleague, and she tells her to keep her friends close, but her enemies closer. ("Fear No More") Whilst on a date with George, Bree spoon feeds him and Edie watches from another table, causing awkwardness for all involved. Edie later talks to Bree and she tells her that she can have anyone she wants and that she chooses the town's pharmacist, and even if it is not cheating, she is still somewhat unfaithful to Rex. ("Sunday in the Park with George") Edie brings donuts to Mike Delfino one morning, and is aggravated to find that he and Susan have gotten back together. Mike then suggests to his girlfriend that they move in together, and thus they start all the preparations for that. Edie stages an intervention with Susan's best friends, who are concerned that Mike might still be not as good as he lets on, but the idea falls through when Susan tells the girls that for the first time in a long time she is genuinely happy. ("Goodbye for Now") Edie later welcomes new neighbor, Betty Applewhite, to Wisteria Lane, and questions why she bought the house without even visiting it. ("One Wonderful Day") 'Season 2' As Edie's house nears completion, she watches as the finishing touches are added. Later, while at the construction site of her house, Edie is approached by Susan, who is looking for Mike. Edie tells Susan she heard about the hostage situation with Zach, and she mockingly asks if he hurt her in any way, for example, "pistol whipping". Later on, Edie answers Mike's cellphone, and when she learns it's the police calling, she gives it to Mike; and they tell him they found Zach's dead body. ("Next") Susan discovers Edie has been seeing Karl Mayer when she sees him leaving her house one morning, dressed in a robe and boxer shorts. She tries to tell him he cannot date Edie, but the request is ignored. Later, Susan confronts Edie about dating Karl, and Edie explains how awful she feels about it and admits she should have told her first. After Edie tells Susan that she and Karl had sex in a jacuzzi, Susan tells Edie that Karl said he still loved her, clearly upsetting her. Edie confronts Susan immediately, calling her a liar. After a small struggle, Susan accidentally runs over Edie with her car, breaking her leg. ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy") With Edie now a part of Julie's life, as she's dating Karl, Susan becomes concerned with what Julie is being exposed to. Susan is later shocked when Julie reveals she'll be singing with Edie, instead of her, at church. While Edie practices with Julie, Susan tries to join them at church by playing piano, but Edie turns her down. Edie tells Susan she only wants to be a part of the music group because she's involved. After arguing, they both ask Julie who she'd like to sing with, so she reluctantly chooses her mother, angering Edie. After being guilted by Karl, Susan decides to let Edie perform with Julie, and together, they put on a horrible show at church. ("You'll Never Get Away From Me") As Susan helps Mike search for Zach, who has gone missing, Edie taunts her over the situation. Susan has enough and scolds Edie, and explain they'll probably never find Zach anyway. Edie realizes Susan is using the situation to appear as "little Miss Perfect self-sacrificing girlfriend". She calls her a "conniving little shrew", and then questions why they aren't closer. ("My Heart Belongs to Daddy") When Bree announces Rex's body has been released by the police and there'll be a reburial, Edie seems unsympathetic when Bree questions how she could be accused of murder. Later, Edie joins Bree and the girls when they attend Rex's reburial. ("They Asked Me Why I Believe In You") Edie is at a neighborhood gathering when Susan publicly accuses Paul of murdering Martha and demands that Mike show her journal to the cops. Thinking Susan is crazy, Edie mockingly asks "what she's been smoking". ("I Wish I Could Forget You") Later, Edie finds out that Karl has kept a picture of Susan under the mattress and she realizes he is still in love with her. The two break up, and after having a one-night stand with Susan, Karl realizes he wants to get back together with Edie. Edie then unexpectedly thanks Susan for whatever she did to reunite the two. Susan feels as if she made a difference but still feels lonely because of her judgment. ("Color and Light") Edie plays poker with the girls, and is relatively bitchy towards Susan in regards to her quest to bond with her biological father, commenting that she is an acquired taste. ("That's Good, That's Bad") 'Season 3' In the show's third season, Edie is with Mike when he wakes up from his coma. She learns that Mike has retrograde amnesia and doesn't remember the last two years of his life. While helping Mike fill in the blanks of his memory, Edie constructs a horrible image of Susan and leads him to believe that Susan never loved him and that they were never happy together. Edie admits to Mike that she’s always had a thing for him and that she’s hurt about how he never paid any attention to her. Susan comes by the hospital to give Mike flowers, but catches him having sex with Edie on the hospital bed. Edie and Mike start a relationship, creating even more tension between her and Susan. Edie breaks it off, however, with Mike when he is arrested for the murder of Monique Pollier. Edie's nephew, Austin McCann, comes to live with her. He begins a romantic relationship with Susan's daughter Julie. Susan doesn't want her daughter dating Edie's nephew, but Edie claims she can't do anything about it because they are in love. Julie has Edie pose as her mother so she can get birth control pills without her mother finding out, but it just so happens they share the same doctor. Edie and Susan later catch Austin having sex with Bree's daughter Danielle. He departs from Wisteria Lane when Danielle reveals she is pregnant with his child. Edie is also involved in a hostage situation with Lynette, Julie and Austin at a supermarket, but makes it out all right. Edie's son, Travers, is introduced for the first time, having been dropped off by his father for a month-long visit. Carlos Solis develops a fondness for Travers, which Edie uses to her advantage. Edie tries to seduce Carlos, but he tells her he's not interested in her that way. They eventually sleep together and later, they start dating. Carlos wants to keep the affair a secret, which makes Edie think he's still in love with his ex-wife, Gabrielle. Edie tells Gabrielle about her and Carlos at Gabrielle and Victor's engagement party. Gabrielle is furious and wants Edie to stop seeing Carlos, but she refuses. Gabrielle tries to get her friends to freeze out Edie, but Edie makes that difficult. Edie considers going for full custody of Travers, but Carlos convinces her not to. When Travers is collected by his father, Edie asks for Carlos to move in with her. But because Carlos is renting from Mrs. Simms, who is in a nursing home, he refuses her offer. Edie visits her at the home and tells her that Carlos is an alcoholic, does drugs, and uses her home as a place to hook up with prostitutes. Mrs. Simms terminates the lease and Carlos is evicted. Edie offers Carlos a place to stay at her house, but he is suspicious that she was involved. Carlos tells Edie he doesn't love her. She then tells him she might be pregnant with his child. After they find that she was not, in fact, pregnant, she suggests that he stay with her and they together try for a baby. He agrees, but Edie doesn't go off birth control pills, still convinced he doesn't love her for her. While looking for money in Edie's purse to pay the paper boy, Carlos discovers Edie's birth control pills. At Gaby's wedding, Carlos confronts Edie and tells her he can never trust her again. Edie tries to apologize, but is unsuccessful. At the closing scene of the season, Edie is shown with a sealed letter to her "beloved" Carlos, and hangs herself with a scarf, kicking the chair underneath her feet. 'Season 4' It transpires that Edie's suicide attempt was faked, and was merely a bid for Carlos's attention. He agrees to resume their relationship, leading Edie to discover his secret offshore bank account containing $10 million. She uses this knowledge to blackmail him, asking him to marry her, unaware that Carlos is having an affair with Gabrielle. Edie goes on to announce their engagement, but discovers Carlos's betrayal when she, Carlos, Gabrielle, and Gabrielle's new husband Victor Lang (John Slattery) all suffer from crabs disease. Edie hires a spy to watc Carlos and Gabrielle, and manages to get pictures of the two of them kissing. Edie attempts to get revenge by telling the IRS about his offshore account. She then discovers that Carlos has emptied and closed his offshore account so she turns the pictures over to Victor, knowing he will get revenge. Edie, still feeling vindictive, reveals to the police that Gaby and Carlos may be responsible for her husband Victor's disappearance. A tornado is about to hit Wisteria Lane and Carlos and Gabrielle plan on disappearing. Edie then gets her hands on a folder, giving her access to Carlos's offshore bank account. Gabrielle and Edie fight over the folder, but lose the papers in the tornado. They are forced to take shelter together in Edie's crawl space and are able to put aside their differences for a while. Carlos is blinded in the tornado. Edie finds out Carlos gave her fake jewelry when they were together and gets back at him by telling Gabrielle that Carlos's blindness is permanent, when she thought it was only temporary. Later Edie tells Gabrielle that the way she is treating Carlos is sick and that there are other women out there who would treat Carlos better. When Bree and Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan) are having troubles, Edie lets Orson stay with her. Edie later shares a brief drunken kiss with Orson which is seen by Bree, who is looking for Toby the cat. Bree then confronts Edie about the kiss. When Edie says it meant nothing, Bree slaps her and a full scale war erupts between them. Bree sabotages Edie's business by hounding off potential house buyers. Edie visits Orson, who is now living alone at a hotel, to complain about Bree. When she enters the room, she discovers a piece of paper revealing that Bree's baby is really Austin and Danielle's. Edie threatens to tell everyone about it unless Bree does exactly what she wants. Bree tells her friends about her faked pregnancy and about Edie's threats. The housewives confront Edie and force her out of Wisteria Lane. On her way out, Edie calls Travers, and tells him she's going to be spending a lot more time with him from now on. 'Time Jump' In the five-year jump between season four and five, Edie gets engaged and married to a motivational speaker, Dave Williams, who eventually convinces her to move back to Fairview. 'Season 5' Edie returns to Wisteria Lane, a new and transformed woman. When the housewives notice the change in Edie, they resume their friendship with her. (The fifth season is set five years on from the fourth season finale.) Dave is persistent in convincing Edie to get along better with her neighbors. He kidnaps Karen McCluskey's cat after she is rude to Edie, only returning him when Karen apologizes. When Karen attempts to investigate Dave's background, Edie realizes she knows very little about his past Dave's doctor arrives in Fairview and confronts Dave at the White Horse Club, but Dave strangles him and sets fire to the building. Dave only married Edie to have an excuse to move to Wisteria Lane and get revenge on Mike, who, as it turns out, had been involved in a car accident that killed Dave's wife and daughter. Edie starts to notice something is off about Dave and is irritated that he doesn't show interest in her. One night she wakes up and sees Dave talking to himself. Edie wants to know why he's acting so strangely and Dave tells her he used to be married before he met Edie and that his wife died. Edie is furious he never told her about this before and throws him out of the house. When Edie is locked in a basement with Susan, they have a heart to heart chat and Susan tells Edie not to treat men like tissue and to believe in happily ever afters. After they are freed Edie goes to Dave and tells him to move back in. When Dave tells Edie that Eli Scruggs, the neighborhood handy man, has died, she recalls the time that when she was having marital problems with her ex-husband, Umberto. In a flashback, while feeling insecure about her appearance after Umberto turns out to be gay, Eli reassures Edie and makes her feel better and ends up having sex with her. While at a liquor store, Edie observes an encounter between Dave and Father Drance. Suspicious about her husband's motives, she does a research on his past after Father Drance calls her Mrs. Dash. Determined to know more about her husband's past, Edie goes to the local newspaper for information on Dave's family, only to learn that Dave had both a wife and daughter who were killed in a car crash. Later, when she asks Dave how he feels about children, he tells her that his "friend" had a daughter he loved who died in the crash and lives his life wondering what she would've looked like and how old she would've been; he also tells her that he would never have a child as it wouldn't be worth it 'Death' Edie is still determined to know a lot more about Dave's past. Upon receiving a news article on the fateful car accident and finally learning the truth about her husband's intentions, she confronts Dave when he returns home from his camping trip. As she attempts to call Mike to warn him, she is almost strangled to death by Dave. Tearful and disorientated, Edie manages to run away and drives down the lane. She almost hits Orson as he stumbles onto the road; swerving to miss him, she hits an electric post instead. Dazed and unaware that the power line had snapped and there was water underneath the car, Edie steps out. She receives an electric shock, falls to the ground and dies a few minutes later. Posthumous Appearances *After Edie's death, the housewives pay a visit to her son, Travers, to announce her death and to give him her ashes. On the journey up each of the housewives and Karen McCluskey share memories of Edie. Once they arrive, however, Travers tells them that they were her closest friends and that they should spread the ashes wherever they see fit. Ultimately, her ashes are spread around Wisteria Lane. Edie was at peace about her death and had no regrets because she lived her life to the fullest and to her it was "a one of a kind life." *Edie appears briefly in "Everybody Says Don't" as a hallucination of Dave's, telling him to do away with his complicated plan of killing Susan's son, M.J., on a fishing trip, and instead urging him to go and kill M.J. right then and there. Post-Death Season 6 Edie is later mentioned in Season Six's first episode "Nice is Different Than Good" by Lee McDermott. While selling Mary Alice's house to the Bolens, Lee says he got really lucky, since the woman who handled all the properties in the neighborhood (clearly Edie) slammed her car into a pole and got fried by a power line. Susan later imagines how her life would've been like if she hadn't divorced Karl and never married Mike. After Karl leaves Susan in this alternate future, she sees Mike with a pregnant blondhaired woman walking down the street, it is rumored that this woman is Edie. Season 7 Edie is later mentioned by Renee Perry and Lynette Scavo, when Renee announces that she is moving into Edie's old house on Wisteria Lane. "You Must Meet My Wife" is therefore the final episode of the series to mention Edie after her death, she is never mentioned on the series again. Behind Closed Doors The character Edie was originally written as a recurring role in the series. Actress Nicollette Sheridan, who originally auditioned for Bree Van de Kamp, one of the series' more prominent roles, was cast in the role in February 2004. On August 11, Sheridan was announced to have joined the main cast for the series' first season, the thirteenth cast member to do so. Despite proving popular with fans and critics, Sheridan's role remained somewhat minimal in the series' first two seasons. Series creator Marc Cherry insisted that Edie served "only as a spoiler to complicate the other women's lives." Although Sheridan thought of Edie as the fifth main housewife—in addition to Susan, Bree, Lynette Scavo, and Gabrielle Solis—the opening credits only pictured the other four women, excluding Edie. Additionally, Cherry shared that his goal for the series would be to have the central four women remain in the series. However, Marcia Cross's real-life maternity leave caused Bree to be absent in several episodes of the third season. Edie's character was elevated in prominence, providing the fourth concurrent storyline for the episodes. During this time, the character's "layers are peeled away and the character is developed on a deeper level than has been previously explored." Despite Cross's return, Edie maintained a more important role throughout seasons four and five until the character's death. In February 2009, it was announced that Sheridan would be leaving the show following her character's death, which would involve a car accident and electrical wire. Cherry had confirmed the death of several fan favorites at the beginning of the series' fifth season in September 2008. Rumors of on-set problems with Sheridan and her squabbles with Cherry reportedly led to her departure. Sheridan commented that killing Edie "was a risky decision that could have devastating ramifications," and admitted to feeling ignored by Cherry while on the series. Cherry alleges that the reason behind Edie's death was to cut costs from the series. The series reportedly saved an estimated $100,000 to $200,000 per episode without the cost of Sheridan's salary. In April 2010, Sheridan filed a lawsuit against Cherry, alleging wrongful dismissal and assault and battery, among five other counts. The following June, Sheridan filed an amended claim, clarifying that the alleged assault was a "light tap," but reaffirmed her stance that her contract was wrongfully terminated. Sheridan's portrayal of the character has earned mostly positive reviews. In 2005, Sheridan was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Trivia *Edie was seen attending the First Methodist Church with Ida Greenberg in the season two premiere episode, "Next". *Edie is based on the neighborhood slut featured in director Tim Burton's movie "Edward Scissorhands", called "Joyce", and portrayed by actress Kathy Baker. *Edie was originally going to be called "Evie McCall", as stated in the book, Behind Closed Doors. *Nicollette Sheridan originally auditioned for Bree Van de Kamp, but Marc Cherry thought she would be better as neighborhood tramp, Edie. *At the beginning, Edie was only supposed to be a recurring role and was only set to appear in a few episodes each season. However when Sheridan was cast, Cherry updated her to a more prominent role. *Although Edie is often seen as the fifth main housewife — in addition to Susan, Bree, Lynette, and Gabrielle — the opening credits only pictured the other four women, excluding Edie. Additionally, Cherry shared that his goal for the series would be to have the central four women remain in the series. *At the beginning of season six, new real estate agent Lee McDermott makes a reference to Edie Britt as "the woman who handled the properties in the neighborhood". He also stated that she "slammed her car into a pole and got fried by a power line". *The character of Renee was added to the show to fill in for Edie's character. Fans hated Edie's death, so Marc Cherry added Renee as the "new Edie" and to "stir up some trouble on the Lane". Gallery Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character. 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